From Now to Then
by Chi-Chi's Poptart
Summary: For awhile, it was just the three of them. Problem was, they didn't always see eye-to-eye.
1. Prologue

**Nice to meet you, guten tag, hajimemashite! Welcome to my first multi-chapter fanfic. I tried one before, and it didn't work out so well, but I feel more comfortable with this one**

 _It was just Riley and me forever..._

A loud, unfamiliar noise broke the happy baby noises Riley had previously been making. Joy wasn't quite sure what it meant, but she knew one thing: it didn't sound like a bundle of Joy.

She turned back to the button in front of her, thinking that if she pressed it again, maybe Riley would go back to giggling.

 _Well, for thirty-three seconds._

A short, squat newcomer was standing there, pressing the button while frowning. She was blue, with blue hair and blue eyes, and a small circle of blue light glowing around her feet. She was wearing purple glasses, a white sweater, and blue pants with blue slippers. The button, which had turned a soft blue color, created a new memory, also blue.

And Riley was still crying.

Outside, Riley's parents tried to comfort their newborn daughter. "Oh, don't be sad."

The newcomer noted this. She turned to the still surprised Joy. "I'm Sadness." She held out a hand for Joy to shake.

Joy looked back up at the screen, and back to Sadness. "Oh... uh, hello! I'm Joy!" she introduced herself, shaking her hand.

Sadness acknowledged it, and turned her full attention back to the screen.

Joy may have appeared less than a minute ago, but she could still put two-and-two together: Sadness pressing the button was what was making Riley cry. She tried to politely scoot her off. "If I could just..." Sadness paid her no attention. "If you could just let me... I just wanna fix that..." Sadness still didn't even bother to turn her head, so Joy pushed her unexpected house guest even further, inadvertently squishing her chubby face. Finally, Joy pressed down on the button again. Riley made soft cooing noises.  
Sadness, seemingly unfazed, just pushed the button herself, and the crying returned.

This fight for the button went on for a more minutes, until finally Riley's father came back with a bottle. When Riley's mom put it into her mouth, Sadness finally stepped back.

"Oh, uh, thank you." She quickly took her spot, so that Sadness would not be able to reach the button again.

After a short time, Riley's eyes began to flicker closed. Finally, they shut completely. This made the area very dark, and the only light came from herself and the gold and sapphire memories on the rack. Joy was not sure what was going on, so she turned around to look for her companion, only to find she had completely disappeared. "Uh, Sadness?" she called.

The blue emotion emerged from behind a corner. "Huh?"

"Oh, good, I was just... what are you doing?" Joy inquired.

Sadness let out a slight sniffle and rubbed her nose. "Just looking at this list." She pointed to behind the corner, and returned back to whatever she was doing. Joy bounded toward her, a little scared to be alone in this dark world. She turned the corner and found that there was, indeed, a short list hanging on the wall. It said:

 **1\. Intiating long-term memory:** **  
**

 _ **Find the "end-of-day" memory button, located behind the console. This**_ _ **sucks up all short-term memories and transports them to long-term**_ _ **memory for semi-permanent storage. This should only be done when a**_ _ **state of unconsciousness is achieved.**_ _ **  
**_  
Joy was kind of clueless as to what that meant, but Sadness nodded as if it made absolute perfect sense.

She shuffled back out and looked around, glancing at the button, then the orbs. Joy followed her, curious as to what she was doing. Sadness looked around on the wall behind the button, then at the floor. "I think this is it." She pointed to a little button on the ground, about the size of Joy's foot. Joy, excited at his new discovery, pushed Sadness gently out of the way and tentatively pressed it.

A tube opened up on the wall behind the memories and sucked the very short collection down. "Hey!" Joy exclaimed. "I just made those."

"Oh, that's sad," Sadness moaned. "We have to do that every time she falls asleep?"

Joy sighed. "What do we do now?" she asked, only half-talking to the gloomy emotion beside her.

Sadness just slumped to the floor. "Manifesting is so exhausting," and just like that, she was asleep.

Joy groaned. This newcomer was exhausting.

She decided to go off and look around. Sure, she was a little apprehensive, but she didn't feel like waking up her moody companion. Her glow made it so that she wasn't completely in the dark wherever she went, so she was glad that she always had a little light. She went back to where Sadness had found the list and looked to the right.  
There were a couple of chairs, some empty shelves, and two little boxes shaped like toy chests. **(1)** One was bright yellow, with a smiling sun. The other was a good bit smaller, and painted blue, with a frowning rain cloud.

Joy opened the yellow one up and found a blanket and a pillow inside. Other than that, it was completely empty.

She could guess that this one belonged to her, while the other was Sadness's. She opened up hers which contained the same objects.

Joy returned with them. Just because Sadness was a little... weird... didn't mean she shouldn't try to be nice. However, when she got back, she found that the screen was slowly brightening.

Joy tiptoed around Sadness, not wanting to wake her up and have her press the button again. Joy pressed gently, and sighed in relief when she heard the happy noises coming from Riley.

"Don't worry, Riley," she whispered. "I'll always protect you."

But of course, ten chubby, blue fingers found their way between Joy's arms and onto the button.

"I'll protect her too," Sadness, who had awakened shortly after Riley.

It took all of Joy's willpower not to roll her eyes, as Riley began crying again. This might get a little difficult.

 **(1) These are the form of the lockers from when Riley was very young.** **You might be able to guess what the list will be in the future.** **Remember that the mind world expands as Riley grows older. Since Riley** **is a baby now, most of the objects in the mind world take after baby** **objects.**

 **Have any suggestions for future chapters? Please tell me in a review! I need all the inspiration I can get!**


	2. New Home

**It's a little short, sorry, enschlidigung, gomen-nesai.**

* * *

After a few days, it was time for Riley and Mom to come home from the hospital.

Of course, the two young emotions living in Riley's head didn't realize what was going on till that morning.

Joy and Sadness had been sleeping on the floor, as they didn't really have anywhere else to sleep, when a loud noise woke up both them and Riley. This noise happened to be a car door slamming, but three-day-old emotions wouldn't know that.

Joy sat up so suddenly she slammed her head into the memory racks above her. Sadness was slightly less bad, but had taken her glasses off before she slept and was almost completely blind. She got up, and accidentally stumbled into the button, which turned blue.

* * *

Riley started to cry. Riley's parents, new to this whole thing, panicked a little, but found a pacifier they had received from the hospital. They stuck it in her mouth.

* * *

Joy raced back to the button. Sadness squinted her eyes. "Hello, golden, glowing thing. Do you know where my glasses are?"

Joy picked them up and shoved them on her face. "Oh, hello, Joy."

"Hello, Sadness," Joy said, a very slight tone of annoyance edging into her voice. She took a deep breath, and asked very cheerfully, "Do you mind giving me the button?"

Sadness looked out the screen, at the button, and back to Joy. Repeatedly. Just as Joy was about to take it by force, she replied, "Okay."

* * *

Riley stopped crying, and sucked on the pacifier. Her parents sighed in relief.

* * *

Sadness waddled back to where she had been sleeping and got her slippers on. Then she went to the break room. It had taken them a few days to realize it was there, as the door was almost the same exact color as the walls.

Back at the console. Joy was wondering where they were going. Since Riley couldn't turn her head, Joy couldn't see where they were going very well. She just knew that they were moving.

"Joy," came a voice from behind. A shiver ran down her back until she realized it was just Sadness.

"Sadness! You scared me!" she exclaimed. She immediately knew she had said the wrong thing.

Sadness's eyes welled up with tears. "I'm sorry." she sniffled. "I didn't mean to scare you. I just wanted to give you a sandwich I made. But you probably don't want it from someone as awful as me." She burst into all-out tears.

Joy didn't like it when Sadness cried. She tended to make everything in a five-foot radius soaking wet. The second night she had cried after accidentally slamming the lid of her toy chest on her hand and then used her blanket as a hanky for her tears. Joy reluctantly shared her own with her that night.

As nothing particularly interesting was going on outside, Joy walked over to calm her down. "Hey, hey, it's alright. You didn't mean to," she told her, dodging tears. "I don't think you're awful. I'll eat it."

Sadness stopped. She hiccupped once and then handed Joy the sandwich. Unfortunately, all of Sadness's crying had now made it a soggy mess. Joy was spared from having to eat it by a timely reopening of the car door.

* * *

Dad smiled at his sweet little girl, contentedly sucking her pacifier.  
"Welcome home, Riley." He helped support Mom with one arm, and hung onto the baby car-seat with the other.

* * *

Joy quickly tossed the sandwich far away while Sadness wasn't looking.

"Home?" Sadness asked. "Does he mean that the white place wasn't home?"

Joy didn't know any better than she did. "I guess we have to wait and find out."

* * *

After Dad led Mom inside, she immediately sat down on one of the couches, still a little exhausted. Their old cat, Buzz, came over to sniff her.

"Finally," she sighed, contentedly. "I can sleep in my own bed, eat real food, and spend all day with my daughter." Buzz nudged her hand. "And cat." She scratched him behind the ears.

Dad laughed. "You get some sleep. I'll give Riley another bottle." Mom, too tired to argue, dozed off.

* * *

"Oh, it's time for food," Joy said excitedly. "I can handle this."

"Speaking of food, you ate that sandwich really fast," Sadness stated.

Joy did some quick-thinking. "Oh, yeah, it was soooooo good! Could you make me another one? And one for yourself. In fact, make enough for the whole week!" She may have been laying it on a little thick, but she really wanted some alone time with Riley.

Sadness, a little doubtful, looked at her for a minute. "Okay." She waddled back to the break room.

Joy was relieved. She didn't hate Sadness, and she was nice, but Riley was much better company, even if Riley was unaware of Joy's existence.

Unfortunately for Joy, though, at that moment, Riley closed her eyes.

Joy scoffed at her bad luck. "Aw, come on!" She sighed and pressed the "End-of-Day" button.

Acknowledging her unluckiness, she made her way to the break room, where she enjoyed a non-tear soaked sandwich. Tomorrow was going to be much better; both for her and Riley.

* * *

 **Chapter 2 is complete! A special thanks to those who faved and followed, but to the people who reviewed, I give a good luck charm! It makes croissants come your way!**

 **To Winxclubfan1:** _Aw, thanks, you're nice. I hope you will continue to enjoy this! ;D_

 **To TheJokerMan95:** _Let's hope it stays that way._

 **To TheOneAndOnly1993:** _Yep, you're pretty close. They will be in chronological order, but only loosely connected to each other. I was writing another chapter and that was a little tricky to do that, but I managed to make it work. I have an idea for Fear, but for now, I just want to focus on these two. Glad you like it! I'll take any suggestions I can get, so if you have a particular idea for expansion, don't be shy! I don't bite! Unless it's a full moon._

 **Have you guys seen the Inside Out deleted scene with the puberty emotions? LMAO! Also, there is a video where Pete and Amy talk about an ad lib where Hader says, "Disgust, I've always loved you!" I almost "Awe"d at that, even though I don't ship any IO characters.**


	3. Late Night Disturbance

**Oh my glob! So many line breaks! Sorry for the wait. Stuff got in the way *CoughLazinessCough*.**

 **Anyway, enjoy!**

When Sadness woke up, it was still dark. No light was coming from the screen. In fact, the only light was the blue glow of Joy.

She frowned. That was odd. When Riley was in the hospital, Sadness had slept soundly enough to rival a hibernating bear.

She placed her glasses on her face and looked around. It was very silent. Only the constant, extremely faint hum of Joy's and her energy particles could be heard if she strained her hearing.

She yawned massively and rubbed her eyes. She didn't like this. She liked sleeping. She looked at Joy, who was giggling and hugging her blanket like a puppy. Whenever Sadness awoke, her blankets were always unruffled, but soaked with tears. She sighed, wishing life was really as carefree as Joy believed it to be.

She turned to the screen again, but it was still blank. The button, however, glowed the faint white color it did when Riley was awake. Sadness glanced at Joy, but it looked like she was quite happy with her dream. Sadness decided to let her enjoy it while it lasted.

She put her slippers on and shuffled over to the button as silently as possible. She could just figure out why it was glowing real fast, and she wouldn't even have to bother Joy. She placed her hands on it, but did not press it yet.

* * *

Riley stirred in her fitful sleep. Her infant tummy felt uncomfortable, as it had not had anything in it since several hours ago.

* * *

Sadness took her hands off after a second to see if the problem had been solved, but unfortunately, it had not. She wondered if there was anything that could help her when she remembered. The list from before! That might have something! Them again, it might not, but it was her only option.

She tiptoed to the back and checked it. Sure enough, a second item had appeared on the list:

 **2\. Handling a semiconscious state of host**

 ** _The host will sometimes be in a half-conscious mode. While in this_** ** _state, any time an emotion uses the console, the host will awaken._** ** _Semiconscious is not a healthy state for the host and should usually_** ** _be resolved by waking them up and allowing them to drift off again._**

 ** _However, the effect may vary, depending on the host's age and the_** ** _emotion that uses the console._**

Sadness glanced back. Should Joy...? Nah, she was sleeping already, and it would probably only take a second to fix. Sadness walked slowly back to the button, or console, as she supposed its proper name was, and put her hands on it again. She took a deep breath and pressed it.

* * *

Riley woke up and began crying, wanting a taste of the sweet formula she had enjoyed earlier.

* * *

Sadness quickly removed her hands but the damage had been done. Behind her, Joy sat up suddenly. "Huh? Wuzzat? What's- Sadness! Did you wakeher up?! She was sleeping!"

Sadness pulled the top of her sweater over her mouth with the distinctive look of a small child who was caught with her hand in a cookie jar. "Sorry," she murmured, muffledly. She hung her head so she wouldn't have to face her.

Joy groaned and ran a hand down her face. "Sadness, Riley needs sleep, I need sleep, and you need sleep! But if Riley's crying, we all wake up!"

Joy stalked to the console, prepared to make Riley calm down so that the baby could get her sleep, just as Riley's father entered in his pajamas.

* * *

"It's okay, sweetie," he shushed, picking her up. "I'm here." He heated up the remains of the formula from earlier and fed it to her, burping her afterwards. He placed her back in her crib, where she drifted off once more.

* * *

Joy exhaled. "You're lucky me and Dad made it better. Riley could have been up all night."

Sadness said nothing and scuffed a slipper on the floor, her eyesight becoming blurry from the tears filling it.

Joy sighed, seeing her words had hurt her only companion. She squeezed Sadness's arm gently. "Look... I know you're a little anxious. This is all really new. But that's our problem! Riley shouldn't have to worry about it. Just remember to grin and bare it! It'll get better soon."

Sadness nodded mutely, not lifting her head. "Atta girl," Joy told her. "Now let's get some shut-eye!"

Sadness sighed and crept back to her covers, pulling them over her head.  
She did as Joy told her for a few days, but soon after, Mom made a strange remark.

* * *

"I'm worried about Riley," Jill Andersen confessed to her husband over breakfast.

Bill looked up from his coffee. "Why?"

"Well, I heard that babies are supposed to cry several times a night if they're hungry or scared," she replied, chewing her croissant thoughtfully, "but she only did it the one time, right?"

Bill looked at his cooing daughter, and thought back. There had only been the one time. He didn't want his wife to think he wasn't concerned (he was, just not as much as she was), so he told her, "Let's wait a few more days. If it hasn't changed, we can call a doctor."

* * *

Joy and Sadness listened in on this conversation. Sadness looked up to Joy, a tiny pleading light in her eyes.

Joy regarded her for a few seconds, then relented. "Okay. But wake me up before you press it, so I can make her happy afterwards."

Sadness nodded, and did something that Joy found quite astonishing. She smiled. It was tiny, but there all the same. She left Joy, as she knew she liked her alone time with Riley.

"Sorry, girl;" Joy muttered under her breath, "it looks like this is something that needs to be done. But I'll make sure it doesn't stay this way forever." She imagined the future: she would be running the button solo, a cheerful Sadness egging her on from the sidelines, Riley having the time of her life. Someday, it would be like that. She just needed patience.

* * *

 **UntoldStories113 is the person that I got the Sadness crying in her sleep from. Go look at her stories if you haven't already. They are much more interesting than mine.**

 **Review time!**

 **TheOneAndOnly1993:** _You're right. It's not. But it's fun to see what could have been._

 **GreyWolfDruid:** _Um, don't take this the wrong way, but is English your first language? Because I really am having trouble understanding your review._

 **jellyhill:** _XD_

 **winxclubfan1:** _Mm-hmm. I plan to make a few more chapters with Joy and Sadness and then have one for each of the other guys. And maybe a prologue after that._

 **Avian:** _Sorry I didn't answer your review last time. I had my Guest Review Moderator on and ended up posting in sooner than 36 hours. :( Glad you like it! Please continue reading and reviewing!_

 **Fiona Fargazer:** _They'll come eventually. I've already figured out how to do Fear, but if you have a good way for making another emotion appear, don't be shy! Tell me! I like inspiration._

 **TheReader:** _Aw, thanks. You're nice._

 **Donuts for all the Reviewers! Avian gets two!**


	4. We're not alone? Expanding the console!

**Sorry for late update. Work actually did get in the way a little.**

 **For some reason, I felt like making the chapter title be like the title of a Soul Eater episode, so whatever. It's stupid, ignore it.**

* * *

It had been a two months since Riley was born, and already she had changed quite a bit. She was more alert and could hold her head up very briefly, and did not fall asleep during the day quite as sporadically.

Outside was not the only place, however.

* * *

Joy was manning, or perhaps a better word would be emotioning, the button, Sadness drinking hot chocolate, which Joy had made to keep her occupied, behind her.

"Joy," Sadness spoke suddenly, "short-term memory is almost full."

"The waddahuh?" Joy asked glancing back at her. Sadness gestured to the rack of of memories, which, surely enough, was almost backed up with gold and blue orbs, though mostly gold. "That's not good," Joy stated. "She needs as many happy memories as she can get."

"Maybe we can call someone in for routine maintenance," Sadness suggested flatly, peering into her cup to find that all her marshmallows had melted.

"Routine- what are you..." Joy turned, completely confused at her companion's words. "Where'd you get that book?" Joy pointed to the heavy folder in her lap.

"I was going to check the list and found this instead," Sadness told her, as Joy sat down next to her. The book was labeled "MIND MANUAL: VOLUME 1"

"'Mind manual'?" Joy questioned.

Sadness took another gulp of her drink. "We've had it for a day. I'm only about half through, but it said that we have to call in maintenance as Riley gets older. They expand console and headquarters and stuff."

"Who are 'they''?"

Sadness shrugged. "Only says that, 'The switch for calling Mind Workers is located directly underneath the console.'"

"Console?"

"It's the button, Joy," Sadness deadpanned.

"Really? Button sounds a lot simpler," Joy said. "But we should probably wait until Riley's asleep. What do we do with the memories in the meantime?"

"Let's just take off the less important ones..." Sadness padded over and picked off a gold memory that was a little fainter than the rest. She gently placed it on the ground.

Joy made a noise somewhere between disapproval and dismay. "But that's a happy memory!" she protested.

Sadness looked down the rack. "Yeah, but about ninety-two percent of them are..." she reached up and placed another not-so-bright yellow one on the floor.

Joy stopped her. "Okay, um, do you think maybe you could take some blue ones?"

Sadness scanned the racks and her eyes could only see a few blue ones. "Fair enough," she droned somberly.

Joy was pleased to see that Riley fell asleep only a few minutes later, so they didn't make many more memories for the day.

"Okay let's get them all down to wherever it is they belong!" Joy beamed.

"Long-term," Sadness told her.

"Gesundheit." Joy pressed the end-of-day button and picked up the memories Sadness had taken down, funneling them into the tube with the others. "Now we gotta call these 'mind workers', right?"

"It would appear so," Sadness groaned, lying face-first on the floor. "I'd rather sleep."

Joy decided to ignore her and felt under the "console". There was, indeed, a switch, and when she looked, it was labeled, 'Alert for Maintenance Team'. She flicked it, but nothing seemed to change. She waited a few minutes, listening to Sadness whimpering in her sleep.

Nothing new.

O_O...^-^

A knocking from outside of their living space startled the dozing Joy, and woke Sadness, who immediately started weeping, saying, "I bet that's a psycho-killer!"

"Shh, shh," Joy tried calming her. "It's just the mind workers. Remember?"

Sadness thought for a moment. "Oh. Now we can't sleep..." She drooped like a wilted sunflower.

Joy rolled her eyes without letting Sadness see. "Just... try to think of Mom and Dad hugging us. Isn't that nice?"

Sadness ruminated on this while Joy made her way to the place where the knocking had come from. There was a hatch in the side of the wall, but, like most other things, it was purple and not easy to see.

She opened it and was greeted with... Bubbles.

Well, not really bubbles, but multicolored, translucent, short figures who reminded her of bubbles.

"'Bout time, lady," the lead one said, pushing his way past her and gesturing to his fellows to follow. There were maybe twenty in assorted shapes and colors, like a bunch of jellybeans. The tallest only reached to the bottom rim of Sadness's glasses.

"Okay, gang, you all get a break on constructing the train, but that doesn't mean you can slack off on this. Pete, the blueprints?"

A worker, who Joy assumed was Pete, handed them to him. "Which one we need, John?"

"Well, this place is way overdue for maintenance, so we'll have to do multiple upgrades at once," John said in a businesslike tone. "Amy, Lewis, you guys put up more short-term racks. Rich and Bill work on the core-memory holder. Mindy get to installing some windows, Phyllis can do the recall tube, and me, Tom, and Pete upgrade the console. The rest of you can work on living space for these two." He gestured to the emotions behind him.

The workers gave a halfhearted noise of confirmation. They pulled tools and supplies out of their belts and bags they had brought along.

Sadness and Joy exchanged a glance as the crew got to work.

"Out of the way," one said as she pushed past the two girls, carrying a long board, almost bonking Sadness on the head as she passed.

Sadness and Joy scooted around the group working on the far side of the room.

It was what could only be described organized chaos: workers constantly yelling at each other and making wisecracks, but somehow, they all seemed to be exactly where they needed to be at the right time.

Except for a certain two energy-based life forms. After Joy got smacked in the face by a hammer, Sadness had a wrench dropped on her head (which made all work have to be postponed for five minutes due to danger of flooding), and both had repeatedly knocked over stacks of supplies, the head of the project finally pushed Joy and Sadness into the break room. "We'll be done before Riley's even awake," he answered to Joy's protests.

Sadness placed an ice-pack on her head, and handed one to Joy. "They're a little annoying, but I guess they're pretty important."

Joy applied it to her forehead where she'd been hit. "It's funny. I thought we were the only two here, but I guess not. It's kinda nice to know. But we are the only two in this place."

"Headquarters," Sadness supplied.

Joy gave her friend a glance. "Uh, right. Headquarters is a good name, unlike console." She chuckled at the last part.

Sadness said nothing, and opened the mind manual instead. Joy could guess that their conversation was over, and tried to amuse herself by playing solitaire. However, she was sort of anxious, and it didn't really help distract her from the constant noise of the workers.

Finally, after what seemed like forever, the project leader came in.

"Okay, upgrades are done," he told them, taking off his gloves. "We'll send a message up next time HQ is due for maintenance."

Sadness sighed heavily and got up from her chair, following Joy out.

"Wow," the two polar opposites said in perfect unison. Headquarters was unrecognizable! First, there were huge windows peering over a huge pit with light from enormous corridors in the distance floating in; a ramp led up to a second floor; about ten more short-term racks were installed, a strange circular device was installed in the floor; a tube came down from the ceiling over a hole in the floor; but the console had definitely undergone the biggest change.

It now looked like a glorified pedestal, with several buttons, a few switches and a lever.

"This. Is. Amazing!" Joy beamed, jumping into the air. "Wow, so much more memory space! More living space! And... Woah! I had no idea the rest of Riley's mind was so big."

"It is pretty impressive," Sadness admitted. "I bet it was really hard work."

A timid little mind-worker blushed at the praise. "Just doing our job, ma'am."

The lead worker, John, stepped forward, as the other workers began puttering out the hatch. "The next upgrade should be in ten to twelve months. Some of what we did today is just preparations for future projects, so it doesn't all work at the moment."

"That's okay!" Joy exclaimed. "Thanks for your help!"

"How will you get back?" Sadness asked.

"Employee access hatch," he said, offhandedly. "We're gonna get rid of it when the train starts running."

Sadness peered out the hatch as he left, and there was a ladder that led to a bridge, that in turn led to the other side of the canyon. The hatch was too small for both her and Joy to fit through, but barely big enough for the stoutest of the workers.

"Wow, they may be annoying, but they do a good job!" Joy nodded in approval. "Let's explore!" And without further ado, she took Sadness's hand and pulled her up the ramp.  
There was really only one room up there, and when Joy opened the door, there were five beds and five little bureaus, each with a unique color theme: yellow, blue, purple, green, and red.

"Huh." Joy scratched her head. "There are only two of us. Why are there five beds?"

"Dunno, but I know what one bed is for..." She made her way over to the blue one in the far corner. "So soft..." She gave a small, rare grin, as she lay upon the blue comforter.

Joy did a running flip, and bounced onto the yellow one. "Oh, yeah..." Joy stretched out. She opened the bureau drawers and found, among other things, a nightgown, which didn't look extremely different from her dress, but she knew it was a nightgown all the same.

"I am curious why there are so many beds," Sadness stated. "It seems like a waste of time and effort."

"Look on the bright side!" Joy said jumping up and down on the bed.

"More for us!"

"Okay."

Joy peeked out the door. "Oh, Riley's awake! C'mon, let's get out there and cheer her on!"

"Just when I finally got some time to sleep," Sadness moaned, her face in her pillow.

* * *

 **The mindworker's names are all based off Pixar employees and VAs.**

 **Okay, Reviews!**

 **AnnaTheMockingjay:** _You're sweet! I like your stories, too._

 **scooter2:** _As I answered in our PMs, it's not, but that's a good idea, and thank you._

 **imnotraven16:** _:)_

 **TheReader:** _Glad you feel that way._

 **winxclubfan1:** _The longest fanfic has 4,047,350 words. Currently. I think this story will be finished just a_ little _bit before that. But I'm glad you like._

 **kathita the hedgehog:** _I had to put that through Google translate, but thank you! You're nice._

 **Snowfrost:** _Oh, don't be so hard on her. She's just doing what she thinks is best. *Coughthoughshe'sanidiot,notreallyCough* Hmm, not sure. I rarely ship unless it's cannon (Except for Hetalia, since that show is entirely cannon, and also, not at all cannon.). But I might make a little subtle hint here or there._

 **Eric the Looney:** _First of all, thank your for your extremely long review. That was awesome. I think they showed before, or else Joy and Sadness would probably be like, "Wat u doin?" Not really, but they'd be more surprised. Well, here's the upgrade! You are probably semi-psychic for seeing this was happening. Those are really good ideas. I'll have to let them stir up some plot bunnies first, but I think they could work! Thanks again!  
_

 **Plot Twist the Pegasus:** _Aw, you're so nice! And I wrote more!_

Onto some more pressing matters:

First of all, my iPod, where I wrote about half of the next chapter, died before I could email it to myself. FFFFFFF- *Bleep*

 **Fear:** Sorry, that was my fault!

*Glares* Anyway, I'll try to get a chapter up next week, since I sorta remember it, but that brings me to matter #2. Ya see, the county fair is coming up, and I volunteer there every year. Normally that wouldn't be a problem since I only work 2 days or so, but this year, I am staying with a friend to help with her cows, and take care of my sibling's pigs. This leaves me no time to write from the 12th to the 16th. So if you're expecting a chapter next week, probably no, nein, nyet, iie.

I will accept your Anger now.


	5. Nothing left to tell

**IMPORTANT! READ THE AUTHOR'S NOTE AT THE END!**

It had been ten months since Riley had been born. She had begun to master the difficult skill of walking, albeit somewhat stumbly. Joy could not be more proud. Sadness, on the other hand, found this to be quite the tragedy.

"Oh, the cat never ran from us before! And now Mom's putting up all these gates so we can't go upstairs..." she lamented.

"That's okay!" Joy patted her head. "Think of all the things we can reach now! And-" she started before she was cut off by an unexpected appearance of Mom.

* * *

Mrs. Andersen was very busy, dealing with taxes and cleaning the house. No good parent would let a grabby ten-month-old be near dangerous chemicals and important papers, so she set Riley down in her playpen.

* * *

"Oh, we'll be stuck in here forever," Sadness lamented reaching for the console.

"No, we won't! We just have to climb over the top like we did last time," Joy said, patting her on the arm. She gently set an idea bulb in the console.

* * *

Riley looked up, judging the distance from the bottom where she was sitting, to the top and freedom. She put her meaty toddler fingers through the mesh and started pulling herself up.

* * *

"O-oh, Joy, I don't know..." Sadness stammered. "Remember last time? We fell down and it hurt. A lot." She began to tear up a little just remembering.

"We'll be extra careful this time," Joy said, not paying too much attention to her mopey, but showing some effort in slowing down her rapid use of the controls.

Sadness didn't really stop worrying. Afterall, Joy was the one who had gotten them to fall last time, and she wasn't anxious to have the same experience. She wanted to recall the memory in order to stop Riley from continuing her ascent, but she couldn't do that without the console, which Joy was in full control of. She could try to pull the idea bulb, but there was no way she could do it without Joy noticing and stopping her. She decided to admit defeat, but noticed a strange swirling purple collection of energy in the corner. And they seemed to gradually be getting tighter and closer together. Forming a shape.

She tugged Joy's dress. "Joy..."

"Tell me later, Sadness," she replied, waving her off. "I need to concentrate."

Sadness sighed and walked over to the swirling particles. Slowly, but surely, they began to form a face and body.

The finished particle mass, decidedly male, looked around like a startled rabbit.

"Hello," Sadness said.

He jumped, about to flee from her, when he noticed the console.

* * *

Riley was almost to the top. Just a little more and she could go back to Mom.

* * *

The purple figure pushed Sadness out of the way and hurried over to Joy.

"Wha-?" Was all Joy could say before she was shoved aside. The newcomer pulled back on a lever and slammed his hand on a stop button.

* * *

Riley reached the top, but now she wasn't so sure. It was higher than it looked. She carefully lowered herself back down, and soon, fell asleep.

* * *

"What was that?" Joy asked, a little angrily. "We were almost to the top!"

The newcomer jumped. "We could have fallen and gotten a concussion and had to go back to the hospital, and then Mom would be mad-"

"And it would cost her lots of money, and then she'd have even more work to do," added Sadness, who had gotten back up. The newcomer nodded.

Joy wanted to groan, but it looked as though the newcomer had acted out of caring for Riley, and maybe, just maybe, kept her from falling.

"Okay, okay, fine." She inhaled to calm herself down. "I'm Joy, she's Sadness. What's your name?"

"U-uh, Fear," he said, after a moment. "I keep Riley from doing things that might hurt her."

"Well, I guess she'll be happier if she's safe..." Joy agreed. "Uh, how about I show you around?" She led him to the windows, showed the memory racks, and finally, their bedroom.

"Hey," Sadness said. "There's a purple bed... and then there's two other ones besides ours. That must mean..."

"Are you sure?" Joy said quickly, reading her thoughts. "I mean, maybe it's in case there are bedbugs or something. Amirite?" She laughed at her notevenjoke.

Sadness and Fear exchanged a glance. Maybe there were more on the way, but for now, it just had to be the four of them: the emotions and Riley. And until more emotions came, they would be taking care of her, from now to then.

THE END

* * *

 **I really, really, really hate to do this, but this is the last chapter. *stares sheepishly at ground* I, uh, decided to try Gravity Falls, and it has completely taken over my life.**

 **I know what you're thinking: "Are you stupid or something!? How could something like that replace your interest in Inside Out?!" Just try the first episode, and you'll see.**

 **In the meantime, good luck with your lives, and thank you for reading! *Flies away***


End file.
